First Few Days in Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul safely on Sat. afternoon. With sleeping only about 1 hour total on the flights here I am still trying to recover, but after a good long sleep last night and a quick nap today I am feeling pretty good. On Sat. afternoon I went for a quick 20 minute run before dinner in a nice forested park by the apt. I ran hill sprints and did pull-ups. After dinner we hiked up to the 2nd highest point in Istanbul for a great view of the city. Yesterday we went to church in the Netherlands (in their embassy). After church we went to a Flying Flugtag event by Red Bull where they pushed these huge winged contraptions on wheels off a pier into the water. It was pretty funny. Only a few "flew" more than a few feet. There were over 100,000 people there watching. We put our bikes together last night and went for a quick test ride around town before my friend Emily Prien came over and went to dinner with us. We ate at this nice Turkish cafe where our friend Phillip (we are staying at the apt where he and his wife live) knows the owner and employees and is great friends with them. The owner talked with us the entire time and made jokes (in Turkish). We had a great time and ate a lot (I was staaaarrrving!). Tomorrow we begin our Tour de Turkey with an 80 mile bike ride out of Istanbul. Please pray for our safety as Istanbul is full of narrow, steep streets that curve a lot with tons of traffic and aggressive drivers who don't stop for anything. Some videos of the Flugtag are on my Facebook page as well as some pics from the town that my teammate Tim posted.